


The Devil and the Dead

by nostalgia



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Post-Library River Song, Rated for swearing, Swearing, not-actually-romana
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 16:26:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4486617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgia/pseuds/nostalgia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missy wants to help the Doctor rescue River from the Library, but why?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Devil and the Dead

“Did you ever think of me when you were fucking River Song?” she asked, conversationally.

The Doctor stared at her across the chessboard. He wasn't quite sure how to formulate a reply. Eventually he settled on “Are you expecting me to say yes?”

Missy shrugged. “I just wondered, that's all. You don't have to answer if it embarrasses you. But I will assume that no comment means yes.”

“When River and I were...”

“Fucking,” she prompted.

“...making love, I never thought of anyone but her. I never had any reason to.”

Missy sat back in her chair. “I want to meet her,” she said.

“Well, you can't. She's dead.” He still didn't like saying it out loud, even after all this time.

“So? We have a time machine.”

“There isn't an opportunity,” he admitted quietly.“I used up all her days.”

“You must have been quite smitten,” said Missy.

“I was.” He stared at the state of play on the chessboard. “You're just trying to put me off this game. Which isn't going to work, it's mate in six moves.”

“I know and I don't care.” 

“How do you even know about her?” he asked. He was sure he hadn't mentioned her to Missy. It was never a good idea to give her any information that she might use against him. 

“I read your diary,” she said, as though it were nothing. “The blue one,” she specified. “It was quite boring in the middle, but I did like the tragic ending.”

“I don't remember giving you permission to read that,” he said, keeping his voice steady.

“You didn't.” 

He stared at her for some time before shaking his head and starting to tidy the chess pieces. There didn't seem to be any point arguing about the betrayal of trust. She was Missy, she transgressed boundaries as easily as other people breathed.

“Why didn't you go and rescue her? Time can be rewritten, you know that as well as I do.”

“I was tempted,” he admitted, “I was very tempted.”

“But?”

“I met Clara, and then it didn't seem so urgent.”

“Ah,” said Missy, “the wife would have gotten in the way. You wanted to be able to seduce Clara Oswald with a clear conscience.”

“I did not,” he protested. “I was lonely and I made a connection with someone. You probably couldn't understand what that's like, how much it can change things. I didn't need to chase after lost love. I had my time with River, and then it ended. It's over.” He stood. “Now, if you've finished poking around in my private life, I'm going to bed.”

 

He opened his eyes to find Missy kneeling on the bed beside him. “I've been thinking,” she said. 

“What about?” he asked, voice rough with sleep.

“You didn't like your birthday present.” She held up a hand. “Don't deny it, an army isn't what you wanted, I can see that now. I want to get you something you actually want.”

“A pair of socks will be fine,” he said, closing his eyes again.

“I was thinking more along the lines of bringing River Song back from the dead.”

The Doctor turned away from her onto his side. “Don't be ridiculous.”

“I'm not being ridiculous, I'm being kind. Haven't you always wanted me to be kind?”

“It's impossible.”

“Doctor, I've already thought of a dozen ways to save her and you're almost as clever as I am. So, please, don't lie to me.”

He gave up on his attempts to get back to sleep. He sat up and looked at Missy. “Why are you so keen? You'd hate her. You'd have to compete with someone for my attention and you've never liked that.”

“I like it when you break the rules. I like your arrogance and greed. I want you to learn that Time Lords can have whatever they want.”

“I'm not going to turn into you,” he told her, “even if I bring River back.”

“Prove it.”

Now she was just taunting him. What she was proposing was stupid, difficult, and quite frankly insane. And yet...

 

River woke to the familiar sound of the TARDIS vworping into existence in her living-room downstairs. Normally she would have risen quickly and gone down to greet the Doctor, but since he was still asleep in bed beside her she wasn't sure if she should. Crossing one's own timeline was dangerous and not be rewarded, after all.

With a soft sigh she rose from the bed, ignoring her husband's quiet mutter of protest as she slipped from his grasp. She waited to be certain he was still asleep, pulled on her dressing-gown, and made her way quietly down the stairs.

The light in the living-room was already on, and the Doctor was standing by the fireplace, idly examining the objects on the mantle. 

“Don't worry,” he said without turning round, “I don't remember waking up and meeting my future self tonight.” 

“Shame, I wouldn't have said no to a threesome.”

He moved from the fireplace and stepped towards her. “Have you met me before? This me, I mean?”

She was surprised by the question. “Yes, I met you when...” She stopped. “No spoilers,” she said, tightly.

“No details,” he agreed, “but can you tell me when we met?”

“Why does it matter? You can drop by any time, you always invited.” She paused. “Though it does feel slightly awkward talking to you while the other you is asleep upstairs. Doctor, what's going on?”

“I'll tell you later, I promise.”

“How much later?” 

“Later,” he said, rather too vaguely.

River looked at him carefully, trying to work out what was bothering him. “We met in Paris,” she said, “1987. July. On or about the 14th, I think.”

“Thank you,” said the Doctor quite sincerely. He turned towards the TARDIS.

River cleared her throat pointedly. He turned to look at her with an odd look in his eyes.

“You want me to kiss you,” he said.

She nodded. “If you don't mind.”

“Why would I mind?” he asked. He reached for her, pulled her into a loose embrace. He stared at her for a long moment, then kissed her. 

River relaxed against, but only a little. It always felt slightly strange kissing other versions of her husband. This one was slow and thorough, and there was a longing to it that she didn't like at all. Something wasn't right, and she couldn't pin down what it was. She was almost relieved when they parted. 

“Get him to make you breakfast-in-bed,” he said. 

“What?”

“Your idiot with the bow-tie. Tell him you deserve it.”

She stared at him, trying to work him out. “Will I see you again?”

“I hope so,” said the Doctor. “I've got... there's something I'm working on. With a friend. Call it a surprise present.” He winked at her and stepped into the TARDIS.

River stood until the blue box had completely faded from view, then headed back upstairs to her husband.

 

“Did you get a date?” asked Missy when he re-entered the TARDIS.

“1987, Paris.”

“How romantic,” she said lightly. 

“Rubbish year, though.” He set the coordinates, hearts beating a little faster than usual.

“Don't worry,” she said, “you'll get her back.”

The Doctor turned from the controls to look at her. “You're very invested in this, aren't you?”

“I'm hoping she'll distract you long enough to let me take over a galaxy or two.” She shrugged. “I like fireworks, I want to see what happens.”

“This is a terrible idea,” said the Doctor, knowing perfectly well that he was going to do it anyway.

 

River looked around when she heard the TARDIS materialise. Annoyed, she replaced her wineglass on the café table and wondered if had come to apologise. If so, it had better be a damn good apology. 

Her train of thought derailed somewhat when he emerged from the TARDIS skinny and grey-haired. Either he'd taken a bloody long time to decide how best to make amends or he was here from his own future and had forgotten about the fight. 

She wondered briefly what had happened to _her_ Doctor, but she repressed those thoughts quickly. He wasn't likely to tell her in any case.

“River,” he said, with no indication that he knew exactly when he was in her timeline.

“We're supposed to be spending time apart,” she informed him. “Or did you forget?”

The Doctor thought for a moment. “That argument about you blowing up the Cyberfleet?”

She nodded. “Obviously it's a lot later for you. Shall we do diaries?” She reached for her handbag to get her diary out.

“I'd prefer this one to be off the record, if you don't mind.”

River was surprised, but left the diary where it was. The TARDIS door opened and a woman emerged who River didn't recognise. She looked at to the Doctor for an introduction.

“This is -” he began.

“Romana,” said the woman. The Doctor looked at her oddly but she ignored him. “I'm sure he must have told you all about me.”

“Not much,” said River, and then, in case she had upset the woman, she added, “Don't worry, sometimes I think the less he says the more he means it.”

They sat down at River's table, exchanged a glance, and then the Doctor said, “I need your biodata.”

“Why?”

He spread his hands. “I can't say.”

“Well, aren't we mysterious? If I'm dead and you're planning to clone me, I'll be very upset,” she said lightly.

“Oh, I'd never allow that,” said Romana with a strange little smile. “So you're the Doctor's wife. The latest one, at least.”

“Yes,” said River. Something wasn't quite right about the woman, but it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what it was.

“You smell like a Time Lord.”

“Oh, I gave all that up for him,” said River.

“Really? How romantic. Any regrets?”

River looked at the Doctor. “On occasion,” she said, and he flinched a little. “So,” she said to Romana, “how did you two meet up again?” 

“Oh, it's a long and boring story, not worth sharing,” said the woman who almost certainly wasn't Romana.

“I left the biodata-recorder on the console,” said the Doctor, transparently wanting to leave the conversation.

“Well, go and get it,” said 'Romana.'

He stood and headed back into the TARDIS.

The two women looked at each across the table, both smiling and neither one meaning it.

“Would you kill the Doctor if you had to?” asked not-Romana suddenly. “If it was to save the universe, for example?”

“Of course I would,” said River without hesitation. “He'd expect nothing less of me.”

She nodded. “Then what,” she asked, leaning forwards, “make you so different from the Silence?”

River gaped at her, shocked by the question. “They were evil,” she said.

“They were pragmatic,” said the other woman. “They genuinely believed that they had to kill the Doctor.”

“They were wrong,” said River. “I wouldn't-” she stopped when she saw the Doctor leave the TARDIS with some sort of boxy gadget in his hand. 

He sat down and gestured for River to give him her hand. He placed the box over it. “This won't hurt a bit,” he said.

“Liar,” said River as the machine began its work and her skin started to sting. 

 

“Why did you tell her you were Romana?” he asked when they were back in the TARDIS.

“I didn't want to prejudice her against me,” said Missy. “It might have stopped her helping us.”

“I'm not sure she'll be too happy about this,” said the Doctor, expressing his latest doubts. "She did say -”

“She didn't mean it. Humans always think they won't mind dying, but they don't usually have an alternative.”

The Doctor plugged the biodata-recorder into the console. “Well, we can ask her before we start growing her a body.”

“If you like.” Missy looked at him over the controls. “Now we need the rest of her. I assume you remember where you left her?”

“I don't think I could forget,” said the Doctor, already setting a course for the Library. He glanced up at Missy and saw her smiling to herself. Once again he wondered why she was so keen to help him. 

 

The transition to the TARDIS was, for River, sudden and swift. One moment she wasn't there and the next she simply was. 

The Doctor – neither the one she thought of as hers nor the one she had saved on the day she died – stood before her with a look of wary satisfaction on his face. 

“So this is why you wanted my biodata,” she said, getting straight to the point. She looked down at herself. “I don't feel very substantial.”

“You're a hologram at the moment,” said the Doctor. “I didn't want to start growing you a body until I was sure you actually wanted to be rescued.”

“So I can't touch you,” said River.

He shook his head.

“Well,” said River, “since we have an audience perhaps that's for the best.” She looked at the other person in the room, the woman from Paris whose name she had never learned.

“I'm -”

“Not Romana,” said River.

“No,” she agreed, “not Romana. I'm Missy.”

Leaving that little mystery for the moment, River looked back to the Doctor. “What about the others? Anita, the Daves, Miss Evangelista?”

“Later,” said the Doctor. “There's only enough space to store one of you at a time.”

“I see you have it all planned out,” said River lightly. 

“More or less,” said the Doctor. An awkward silence stretched out to fill the room.

“Shall I leave you two alone?” asked Missy after a while. “Or are you going to start shouting at each other, in which case is there any popcorn?”

“Shut up,” said the Doctor without looking at her.

“I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me,” she said, turning to leave. 

River watched her go before asking the question. “Who's Missy?”

“Short for Mistress,” said the Doctor, looking a bit embarrassed.

“The Master?” River wasn't as surprised as she felt she should have been. “Reformed?”

“Not quite,” said the Doctor, rather too vaguely.

“Was all this her idea?” asked River. 

“Of course not! She did sort of... encourage me, though.”

“And you went along with it because..?” He had better have a good answer or hologram or not she'd find a way to slap him.

“Because it's a good idea. I've missed you, I'd like to have you back.”

She felt some of her resistance melt away, but only some. “She wants something,” said River, quite sure of it.

The Doctor didn't seem too concerned. “She wants me to break the rules,” he said with a quick shrug. “I think she sees this as a first step towards turning me into her. Which,” he insisted, “it isn't.”

“Are you sleeping with her?” 

“Don't be ridiculous!” he snapped, too quickly. A blush betrayed him and River knew perfectly well that he was lying.

“Doctor, I'm dead, I can hardly blame you for moving forwards. Or backwards as the case may be.” She had always wondered about her husband and the Master, about how vaguely he had described their relationship in the past. 

“I'm not... it was just a couple of times, it's not like... it's just not.”

“You can't cure evil with love,” said River, aiming her voice between kind and cold.

“It worked on you,” he said, which he apparently thought was going to end the discussion.

River stared at him. “That was completely different and you know it.”

“I don't think it's different at all,” he protested. “It'll take longer with her, yes, but she can change. She's been on her best behaviour recently, you haven't seen how much she's calmed down.”

River wasn't in the mood for an argument like this. “Switch me off for a while,” she said, “I need to think.”

The Doctor hesitated, then did as he was told.

 

The Doctor headed to the kitchen with a lot on his mind. He'd expected River to be happier about her impending rescue, and he had begun to suspect that Missy's real motivation was to ruin his relationship with River after it had already ended. The Master had always had a jealous streak, and Missy was surely no different from her previous selves.

Missy was pouring herself a cup of tea when he reached the kitchen. “Where's the wife?” she asked. 

“She's thinking things through,” said the Doctor, not wanting to admit that they had argued. 

“You told her who I am.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“I told you she'd hold my past against me,” said Missy, sipping at her tea.

“I couldn't very well not tell her.” He rubbed his eyes. “I'm going to bed.”

“Good idea,” said Missy, placing her cup on the counter-top. “This could be our last chance.”

“Last...?” He realised what she meant. “You're not invited,” he told her. 

“Whyever not?” she asked in a seductive tone.

He wasn't going to be won over that easily. “Because my dead wife's on board and because I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.” 

Missy stepped towards him. “You think I have an ulterior motive.”

“I don't know what to think.” He stepped away from her as she leaned into his personal space. “I'll see you in the morning,” he said, leaving the room before she could respond.

 

“Doctor, wake up.”

He opened his eyes and saw River standing by his bed. “I switched you off,” he said, confused.

“I switched myself back on,” she said. He waited for her to explain how she'd managed that, but instead she said, “I think Missy needs me or something I have access to.”

He sat up and shook his head. “I thought of that, but there's nothing you have that she can't get hold of by other means.”

“Doctor, I live in a library. _The_ Library.”

“Information?”

River nodded. 

The Doctor remained unconvinced. “But she can't get into the Library, the Vashta Nerada would kill her.”

“I take it you've never heard of ebooks,” said River.

“I prefer paper,” he said, even as he understood what River was suggesting. He got out of bed and started dressing quickly. “I should have thought of that,” he said as he pulled a t-shirt over his head.

“Yes,” said River, “you should have. I'm a distraction as well as a means to get what she wants.”

“That you are,” he said. “She's always been good at finding my weaknesses.”

The hologram flickered suddenly, breaking up and reforming. “She's accessing my program,” said River. “We don't have much time.”

They hurried to the console room, rushing along the corridors until they arrived to find Missy at the controls.

“Whatever you're doing, stop it,” said the Doctor, stepping behind her.

Missy spun quickly and punched him in the face. She followed him as he staggered back and brought her knee up to his groin. He collapsed to the floor and she started kicking him, brutally, over and over.

He heard River's voice. “Missy, you can have anything you want, just stop hurting him. Please.”

“Give me the code,” said Missy.

“What code?”

“The access code for the Library, the one that's woven through your file.” 

He tried to tell River to refuse, but he didn't have enough breath to form the words.

“Apple,” said River, “three, four. Twenty-six. Flamingo.”

Missy didn't bother to thank her and the Doctor couldn't stop the darkness that was closing in on him.

 

 

River was leaning over him when he came round. “You have to get up,” she said without preamble.

He tried to move. “I don't know if I can.”

“It's not optional,” said River. “Missy's already in the Library system, you have to stop her.”

He managed to get to his knees. Everything hurt. “You shouldn’t have given her the access code.”

“She was beating you half to death!”

“I'd have regenerated,” he said, holding onto the railing and pulling himself to his feet.

“Well, it's all academic now,” said River. 

The Doctor gripped the railing and called across the room to Missy. “I should never have trusted you.”

“I'm glad you did,” she said, looking up from her work. 

“What do you need the Library for anyway? I thought you knew everything,” he added, hoping he could taunt her into telling him her plan. 

Missy ignored the question. “If you like I'll upload you to the Library before I kill you. You could spend eternity with River, one day after another until you can't stand the sight of each other. Would you like that?”

River appeared at his side. “She's looking up vampires.” The Doctor glanced at her and she continued, “I'm part of the system, I can see what she's accessing.” 

“Vampires?” 

“Great Vampires,” said Missy, “if you must know.” 

“They're extinct,” said the Doctor. “I killed the last one centuries ago in E-Space.”

“Not according to this,” said Missy. 

River stepped closer and whispered to him urgently. “I can wipe everything she downloaded.”

“Would that include you?” he asked, quietly.

“I'm already dead,” she said. 

The Doctor shook his head. “No,” he said, “I'm not losing you again.” Before River could reply he looked back to Missy. “What do you need extinct vampires for anyway?”

She smiled. “I have only the purest of motives, Doctor. Revenge, for what the Time Lords did to me.”

“They resurrected you, you should be grateful.”

“I never did believe in gratitude,” said Missy.

River stepped in front of the Doctor. “Let me stop her.”

“No.”

“You're in no state to do anything useful,” she pointed out. “I shouldn't even be here, but you wouldn't let go.” She raised her hand to his cheek and he could almost feel her touch. “It's time, my love.”

Before he could stop her, River closed her eyes and faded into the air. He saw Missy turn from the controls, angry. “What did you do?” she demanded.

“Nothing,” he said, honestly. “River deleted all the files from the Library.”

Missy stared at him. “And you let her? You let her kill herself again?”

“She was already dead,” he said, suddenly tired. His eyes stung and it was all he could do to stay upright. 

A calm seemed to settle over Missy. “I misjudged you two,” she said. “I was sure sentiment would win out over practicality. You beat me. Well done.” She turned and left the control room without another word.

The Doctor watched her leave, then let himself fall back to the floor. “Well done,” he repeated to himself, hearing the flatness in his own voice. He looked across to where River had stood, and then he didn't move again for quite some time.


End file.
